2016: Demonetisation, collapse of the steel frame of Indian bureaucracy, surgical strikes against Pakistan and Reservation in Promotion

December 31, 2016

As 2016 was coming to a close, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi shook the entire nation by announcing on November 8 the scrapping of the high denomination Rupee 500 and 1000 notes. Demonetisation, according to the Prime Minister, had been done to fight the scourge of black money and counterfeit currency and also to choke the channels that were funding terrorists and creating unrest in Jammu and Kashmir. The Prime Minister appealed to the people to bear the consequences of demonetisation and support the cause of the nation till December 31 as things would start improving after that.

Notwitstanding the lofty goals announced by the Prime Minister, fact remains that the nation on the whole has suffered massive hardship as a consequence of demonetisation. One only has to talk to industrialists, traders and business people to gauge the losses they have suffered as demand for goods dropped to unimaginable levels during the last 50 days. Consequently the unorganised sector also went into a tailspin and there is no count of how many workers have been laid off both in the cities and the countryside. It remains to be see how long it will take for the country’s economy to overcome the backlash of demonetisation.

In this scenario all have been talking of nothing else but demonetisation. While the Modi followers and hardliners are optimistic, there is a big section comprising of professionals, industrialists and and economists who do not see any rationale behind the Modi Government to go for demonetisation. It is being argued that this step was taken only to pin down politicians sitting on a big horde of money before the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab Assembly elections.

The issue of Reservation in Promotion, a policy being followed so blatantly by the Madhya Pradesh BJP Government, obiviously to pursue its vote bank politics by appeasing the SC/ST communities, also has drawn maximum attention from newsroom24x7 readers this year.

Sentiments have also been raging across the country earlier this year due to the violence in Kashmir and cross-border attacks by Pak terrorists. What is significant is that the world stood with India when Indian troops went ahead with surgical strikes and destroyed the launch pads of terrorists inside Pakistan.